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All posts by beatrice branca

In the last week of January, PALU has been selected among other SME Instrument top innovators to take part to a prestigious event organized by the business acceleration services to introduce the most interesting business cases to a delegation of AIRBUS representatives.

Together with other 29 companies operating within the aeronautics market, we had the opportunity to pitch our innovative project ANGELS to an exclusive audience into the Hamburg aviation cluster at the Centre for applied aviation research (ZAL), receiving feedbacks and suggestions.

The companies also shared experiences with other companies and affiliates and got to know.

Richard Morby, Director of the aerospace division at NEXTSENSE Worldwide, stated: “Thanks to SME Instrument I had the chance to pitch with Airbus and met the right people here and I think we are going to start doing good business very soon”.

Torsten Bardewyck, Airbus Head of R&T Business Development EU, shared the excitement: “We are very excited about this event that gives us the possibility to meet at the same time so many fascinating enterprises pitching on new technologies to get them on board of our aircrafts. We have to facilitate to engage with them”.

At the end of September, from Tuesday 19 to Friday 22, PALU performed the first offshore flight tests of ANGELS System in Borkum Island, in northwestern Germany. With the support of a crew of the company Windpark Heliflight Consulting GmbH, ANGELS underwent a test flight in order to evaluate its performances in flight operations within an offshore environment and check the quality of the ADS-B signal. The test was performed with an EC-135 P2+ helicopter to Riffgat helideck, which is positioned inside an offshore windfarm.

ANGELS ground station and hardware were shipped to the helideck few days before the test and were installed by personnel of EWE Offshore Service and Solutions GmbH, which is the operator of Riffgat Substation. An ADS-B receiver was put inside the helicopter with an external ADS-B antenna attached to helicopter skids in order to increase the quality of the communication signals.

Tests were performed during the second day after the arrival of PALU team, at three different batches: the first one at 12:35, the second at 13:50 and the last one at 15:17, in order to confirm the sensitivity of the horizontal and vertical bar indication on the iPad display. The initial approach fix (IAF) was located at 1000ft MSL. During the second flight, a complete departure and approach was performed on the basis of the approved visual approach and departure procedure for night operations by the use of HAPI (Helicopter Approach Path Indicator).

The test proved that the ANGELS System works properly and that the portable solution with an iPad in the helicopter is a suitable way to present the information to the pilot.

On Tuesday September 5, in the afternoon, ANGELS System performed the final flight tests in Bresso City Airport, near Milano.

With the support of Elite Aviation, a provider of helitaxi, tourist flight and flight school services, we set up the ground station and the helicopter antennae, checking data up- and downlink.

The test was performed with a Robinson44 and followed a two-stage procedure, each stage lasting about twenty minutes; the procedure agreed with the pilot consisted in tracking the visual glide path with the aid of an iPad, during a flight over Milan along a trajectory that had been previously defined. It was an exciting and successful experience, and the system gave a brilliant performance. We would like to thank the team of Elite Aviation for willingness and support.

On Wednesday June 19 ANGELS System performed some field trials at Lido di Faggeto, a beautiful beach on Como Lake. The test aimed to check ADS-B communication and downlink to the ground station by reproducing helicopter movements with a boat.

With the support of the staff of Lido di Faggeto – Miamilaryo beach we set up a work station just by the lake, where we placed our antennas and installed the ground station; we then defined the test paths and set up the relative file. The whole procedure took about 3 hours.

In early afternoon, Mr Angelo Menara kindly provided us with his boat, and he’s been driving us around the mapped spots on the lake while checking the ADS-B signal via ANGELS App.

The test suggested interesting issues to be explored towards our first official helicopter mission in Riffgat offshore wind farm, that will involve Windpark Heliflight support.

We would like to warmly thank the whole staff of the beautiful Lido di Faggeto – Miamilaryo beach for the hospitality and the support; a special thanks goes to Mr Angelo Menara, for his time and his patience.

On wednesday June 28 we held the first official ANGELS System presentation event at ComoNExT-Innovation Hub, and it was such a proud to us!

The event was intended for the industry, and it was organized with the patronage of Associazione Elicotteristica Italiana (AEI), which represents and supports the interests of italian companies operating in the helicopter sector since 1986. Vice-President Roano Grandi opened the session with an interesting speech on rotorcrafts facilities and infrastructures.

We talked about Horizon2020, including participation requirements and benefits of the Program. Mr Steffen Bechtel, Managing Director at Windpark Heliflight Consulting, informed the participants about Offshore Wind Operations in Germany, how it is done practically and about the specifics in offshore wind, outlining the reasons why a glide slope indication is necessary to approach a helideck inside a wind farm at night, and explaining why the present solution (HAPI) is not satisfactory, and ANGELS System could so represent a viable alternative.

The conference ended with an overview of ANGELS technical features and components, including inputs and outputs of the Ground Station and operating principles.

We would like to thank all the participants for coming and showing interest in our project.

On Tuesday March 09, ANGELS System successfully performed flight trials on a drone. The flights were carried by AERMATICA3D, which is the Drone Solution Provider that assembled the drone with ANGELS System Equipment.

AERMATICA3D has been the first company officially authorized to fly small civil drones in not segregated airspace in Italy, opening by its developments the way to the whole regulated drone market. AERMATICA3D experimentations gave relevant contributions to ENAC (Italian Civil Aviation Authority) regulation and to the opening of the airspace for specialized operations by drones.

We asked AERMATICA to equip a drone with an ADS-B transmitter and a GPS antenna; the test aimed to check ADS-B communication and downlink in-flight. Further tests have been planned for the next week.

We proudly mention some extracts of our interview for Aero-News Network about ANGELS during HAI Heli-Expo in Dallas:

<<High-Precision Instrument Guidance System Coming Soon To The Market… An Italian start-up company is working on an ADS-B-based technology to enhance safety of helicopter approaches and landings.>>

[…]

<<Angels is a precision, ground-based approach system. It downlinks data from the helicopter to the ground station, which makes a predictive elaboration of the data and uplinks it back to the aircraft giving lateral and vertical alignment. Pilots can use an iPad in the cockpit to present the data from Angels, or the aircraft’s cockpit displays can be utilized by the system on larger aircraft.>>

On monday April 17, a UH-60 Blackhawk military helicopter crashed at Breton Bay Golf Course in Leonardtown, Maryland, during a routine training exercise Monday; one crew member died and two others were injured, according to the US Army Military District of Washington.

The causes of the incident are currently under investigation.

The helicopter came down in a small patch of trees in between two golf holes, according to Kevin Bowen, who works in the club’s pro shop.

One witness, Garrett Bowles, told CNN he thinks the helicopter hit some trees as it went down. Another helicopter was at the scene when it crashed, Bowles told CNN.

Bianca Melton, a second witness, told CNN the helicopter looked like it stalled out before crashing.

Yesterday, Tuesday 21 March, ANGELS System has undergone the first qualitative precision test, in order to track and evaluate the eventual deviation bands around helicopters moves.

In the park nearby ComoNExt (the technological hub in which PALU is incubated), we placed six bricks to mark the spots of the trajectory and glide path of our hypothetical helicopter; with the support of Blu Electronic, Ennova Research and GRed,we set up the ground station and the receiver, and then we started testing the matching between data represented on ANGELS app and those intercepted by the receiver, making movements and gaps in order to get precise measures of our distance assessment system.

First results were encouraging, but systematic analysis still have to get done. In the meantime, we put to good use the experiences and the suggestions gained in HAI HELI Expo.

On thursday March 9, ANGELS System was on the front page of HAI Convention News, the industry’s best read and most authoritative news publication: analyst Mark Huber dedicated a large, glowing article to PALU, disclosing our partnership with Freeflight Systems and highlighting the characteristics and the innovation of ANGELS System.

“ANGELS is a ground-based approach system that uses ADS-B technology to provide precision reduced-visibility VFR approaches tailored to helicopter operations in critical situations, when weather conditions cause visibility to be compromised”, Huber writes.

The day before, PALU held a news conference to present ANGELS System (you can find the stream video of the intervention here); many media representatives attended, asking questions and explanations and showing interest in the theme.

We are proud to confirm our cooperation with Freeflight Systems (Irving) in importing ANGELS technology in the US.